Ha ha!!

No wonder CBB didn't lift Five above fifth place yesterday.

Everything around it flopped to perhaps the channel's worst ever levels between 7 and 8.30pm:
'Back on Channel 5, Highland Emergency earned 220k (1.1%) at 7pm (18k/0.1%) and Construction Squad: Operation Homefront took 265k (1.3%) at 7.30pm (22k/0.1%).'

Not good at all. Shocking actually. Let's hope things improve though I can't see it what with Celebrity Super Spa almost certain to ruin next week, and perhaps leave an effect on them in the weeks thereafter.

Highland Emergency and Super Spa both made by ITV Studios.

Interesting strategy: win commissions from your rival channels, then supply them with crap.

Not great ratings last night after the soaps and it was a very wet night to.

In fairness Highland Emergency normally rates well, but it usually airs in a different slot and it's been on repeats for ages.

I think I'll give it a miss next week then

It's not all doom and gloom. Animal Maternity is a hit waiting to happen on my birthday (Sept 18) and the film selection next weekend is very strong.

Looks like Channel 5 burnt themselves last night by trying to sneak Celeb Super Spa into a poor rating big brother. Very bad decision to air that tripe at 9pm next week and show Under the Dome and Wentworth at10pm instead. The 10pm drama strategy really doesn't seem wise in a PVR age, it encourages people to record and watch it later rather than attract floating viewers. It should be throwaway reality trash at 10pm, the sort that isn't likely to be recorded.

I see they are trying to bury The Bible away at Christmas, possibly a wise decision, considering there is little advertising money available at the time. A weekly 10pm slot could get embarrassing considering its quality, it'll make Super Spa look BAFTA award winning quality

Emmerdale beat Eastenders again last night.

Karl's admission that he started the Rovers fire that killed Sunita attracted 8.85 million (38.7%) at 8.30pm on ITV. The 7.30pm instalment was earlier seen by 8.75m (42.7%).

Emmerdale attracted 6.93m (36.1%) at 7pm (204k/1% on ITV+1).

On BBC One, EastEnders brought in 6.83m (32.4%) at 8pm. The BBC Three repeat at 10.30pm had 456k (2.9%) at 10.30pm.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3...n-by-885m.html

Brit Icon Awards? Oh God, is there an award for anything nowadays? What next the annual Bodyform best period award?

I think the writing is on the wall for EE. No matter how much money you throw, no matter how much you bring former cast members - people won't switch back.

As for low ratings: there was bugger all on!

86pct of voters have given their seal of approval for EastEnders' big week. The vast majority have said they enjoyed Ronnie Mitchell's return and ratings have been up week-on-week overall. Eastenders' ratings recovery towards the top spot continues next week, as we draw closer to the highly anticipated return of one of soap's biggest matriachs - Peggy Mitchell.

Its alright asking the ones who are still watching, but its the ones who have gone away they need to get back.

Most people agree that this week saw a marked improvement in the quality of the episodes though. If they can continue this then in time the viewers should return.

The decline was gradual, so it only makes sense that the recovery will a slow process too.

I do think that a compromise will be reached on the "Strictly Come Dancing" "The X Factor" clash.

BBC One ran last years series from 630pm and I cant see them changing this for this years ratings drive. It would not benefit either show to clash as "Strictly Come Dancing" also does better without overlaps. Besides most viewers want both shows live. If "Strictly Come Dancing" does go at 7pm then week 2 show 3 will be longer therefore an earlier time will be needed to accommodate all celebrities. They also need to get that results show filmed too so it benefits the production to go early. However it looks like BBC Ones share will be high from September to February for the first time in years. "The Voice" is going to fill a post Christmas vaccuum that has damaged BBC One on a Saturday for some time now. They are now offering the viewers a solid six months of talent shows. I think "The Voice" could scoop up the bereft "Strictly Come Dancing" fans just by being there. And I have to agree that itv should have started "The X Factor" much later in the year to wrap around all of these months and get Cowell back to the lives. It may be worth them having a delayed "Im a Celebrity" in January rather than November when they are already strong. Itv really need to look at their products and how they sell and schedule them. These highly expensive shows become lost amongst traditional and old fashioned scheduling and at the moment the BBC are outwitting them
So glad George Dixon isn't there any longer. He almost wrecked "Strictly Come Dancing" with Jay Hunt and promoted "So You Think You Can Dance" "The Peoples Quiz" and Andrew Lloyd Webber over the ratings banker "Doctor Who"

Quite frustrating DS have seemingly ignored Corrie's +1 figures as I think it would have been above 9 million including +1.

No, ITV schedule for biggest commercial impact. Not to outwit the BBC. I'm A Celeb is there to mop up pre-Christmas advertisers when there is a demand, what good is that in January ?

Given the poor Friday evenings overnights "EastEnders" has been getting 6.8 million is just fine. It needs to find its feet and the audience shouldn't be dipping and diving and to be fair to "Ronnie Week" its held a solid audience. All figures will now timeshift to respectable audience figures. That's all it needs to do for now.

I don't think it's that surprising really, they both had strong weeks quality wise but Emmerdale is coming off the back of a few strong months whereas this is the first time EE has had a run of great episodes in at least a year. Viewers know what they're going to get with Emmerdale, EE needs to stay at this level consistently before the viewers come back.

So it lets go of the audience in January then? Fair enough but the impact of that is you develop an uneven channel that viewers loose their loyality with and BBC One becomes a more default choice


Channel 4 is quite uneven in its scheduling and therefore has actually lost part of its core audience through inconsistancy.

The fact Eastenders' ratings arent showing a significant sign of shifting up even with these big storylines and trails on bbc is a bit concerning. It's no where near axe worthy but it's a sad state of affairs right now. Even with major trailing, better quality of episodes and returns, it's not capable of beating Emmerdale on most nights. That must be quite worrying for the bbc1 controller and EE EP.

Who cares whether its gold silver or bronze. Is it any good. Is the writing decent? Is the acting any cope? Whats the stories like. None of the soaps gain anything by looking over their shoulder at the others. It just needs to first concentrate on being good not bad and the viewers second actually.

And you've reached this view because BBC One has moved The Voice to January ?

The point is, there are good commercial reasons why the big hitters are where they are in the schedule. I'll trust ITV with the economics, they seem to be doing a good enough job lately.

That does look good I have to say.

Did You Hear About The Morgan's? premieres tomorrow also. What other films do they have to premiere?

I've noticed Criminal Intent will air Thursdays at 10pm for its final () season, and that Castle airs behind CSI: New York at 10pm on Tuesdays. Interesting.

EastEnders has traditionally been there in the schedules for BBC1 to get the ratings. So the ratings for it do matter. Obviously we all want it to be as good as possible quality wise, that goes without saying. But it needs to improve in the ratings, especially share wise. Getting shares of 30-33pct is not good enough, and it ought to be beating Emmerdale like it's done for 27 years in a row.